Nursery Villas

The buildings at 9, 9A, 11, and 11A Nursery Villas are a house, extended to form a pair of attached houses, now comprising three dwellings. They date from circa 1670, with alterations from the 1820s and an extension in 1976. The construction is of rubble with cement stucco, featuring brick end, lateral, and rear external stacks, and a pantile hipped roof. The house has a single-depth plan with a rear left-hand wing.

The exterior presents a near-symmetrical front with full-height canted bays at each end, and ground-floor canted bays flanking the party wall. Good segmental-arched doorways, located on the inner side of the outer bays, feature radial fanlights with margin lights and reeded surrounds, leading to six-panel doors with flush lower panels. Two- and three-light mullion windows are present. The rear elevation has an external stack to No. 9, and irregular fenestration including 6/6 and 3/3-pane sash windows in flush frames. A 6/6-pane sash stair light and paired 6/6-pane sashes are also present at No. 11.

The interior of No. 9 has an entrance hall leading to a rear, late 19th-century open well staircase with turned balusters and large newels. The front rooms on either side retain cornices, with small modillions to the right-hand rooms. A 20th-century king post roof is present, along with a rear cellar containing a shallow vault. Inserted fireplaces are noted. No. 11 was not inspected but is reported to contain a good early 19th-century cantilevered staircase with a cut string, brackets, a curved upper section, balusters of paired rods, a curtail, a column newel, and a wreathed handrail with inlaid star. It also has six-panel doors and low ceiling heights with cased beams.

The buildings are believed to have been constructed circa 1670 and were used as a nursery in the early 19th century. They are of interest as a late 17th-century farmhouse within an area developed from the mid-18th century, and for the architectural details of the entrances and the staircase, found only in a few Bristol houses dating to circa 1820. An advertisement from 1827 for John Miller, Nurseryman, Seedsman, and Florist, illustrates the square outer bays.